Manufactured tires generally undergo certain testing before being made available for sale to the public. One such test includes measuring the balance of a tire by rotating the tire at a high speed. The machines used for measuring the balance of a tire must secure the tire in position, inflate the tire, and then rotate the tire at a high speed while detecting forces during the tire's rotation.
Prior art devices typically utilize load cells that detect forces in an axial relation to the tire's rotation. Although effective in its stated purpose, it is believed that more accurate determinations of a balance condition can be obtained. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved tire balancer that detects forces in a horizontal plane in relation to the tire's rotation. And there is a need to collect and process the forces detected in a meaningful way to properly identify a location and amount of a tire's out of balance condition.